In Girl’s
Last Hope, Altered Immune Cells Beat Leukemia
This article describes a 7 year-old
girl’s amazing recovery from leukemia with the use of altered T-cells. The
girl, Emma Whitehead, had been ill with acute lymphoblastic leukemia since 2010
(when she was 5). She was given an experimental treatment that used a disabled
form of the virus that causes AIDS to reprogram Emma’s immune system
genetically to kill cancer cells. The treatment almost killed her,
but she emerged cancer-free, and now she has not relapsed in the past 7 months.
The treatment was developed by Dr. Carl June at the University of Pennsylvania.
The treatment has been tested on ten other people: three adults have been
“cured,” four adults have improved, one child improved then relapsed, and in
another two the treatment didn’t work at all. The mixed results show that it
isn’t 100% effective, but the results are promising. Novartis, a drug company,
is giving the team $20 million to build a research center to bring the
treatment to the market. To perform the treatment, doctors remove millions of
the patient’s T-cells and insert new genes that enable the T-cells to kill
cancer cells. The technique employs a disabled form of H.I.V. because it is
very good at carrying genetic material into T-cells. The new genes program the
T-cells to attack B-cells, a normal part of the immune system that turn
malignant in leukemia. The altered T-cells are then dripped back into the
patient’s veins, and if all goes well they multiply and start destroying the
cancer.
This treatment has the potential to
become a major cure for leukemia in patients with no other choice. Dr. June
hopes the new treatment will eventually replace bone-marrow transplantation, an
even more arduous, risky and expensive procedure that is now the last hope when
other treatments fail in leukemia and related diseases. Producing engineered
T-cells costs about $20,000 per patient — far less than the cost of a
bone-marrow transplant. Scaling up the procedure should make it even less
expensive as it gains momentum. Still, the research is in its early stages, and
many questions remain. The researchers are not entirely sure why the treatment
works, or why it sometimes fails. If they find that the treatment is not cost
effective or hurts patients more than it cures them, it may not have any
lasting impact on leukemia treatment. The altered T-cells do destroy healthy
B-cells as well as cancerous ones, leaving patients vulnerable to certain types
of infections, so it may not be the best
treatment that can be developed.
I believe that the author did a very
good job explaining the treatment and its implications. However, she sometimes
explained things in too great detail, while leaving other questions unanswered.
At times, her progression of ideas was confusing as well.. She did do a good
job explaining how the treatment works. Most scientific articles describing
treatments are difficult to understand and follow, but her explanation was
clear and comprehendible.
Maddy Foley
ReplyDelete1.1.13
Ape Biology Comment #8
I read Malika's review of the New York Times article, “In Girl’s Last Hope, Altered Immune Cells Beat Leukemia.” The reviewer expressed the main points of the article in a clear, comprehensible way, particularly in her description of such a complicated treatment. She described the treatment’s utilizing of the AIDS virus to reform T cells that can then attack and kill cancer cells. The AIDS virus is used because it is very efficient in carrying genetic material to cells. The reviewer also did well to explain the significance of this treatment. Though its success rate has not been 100%, it still has put many of the test subject’s leukemia into remission for long periods. The treatment is not only significantly less expensive then bone marrow transplants, a common treatment for chronic leukemia patients, but also is revolutionary in that it creates a human immune system that can fight cancer. Lastly, the reviewer did a good job at explaining the setbacks in this treatment, including the fact that the altered T cells destroy healthy B cells, leaving the patient susceptible to various other infections. The reviewer also recognized the long road that is required to fully test and complete the treatment.
I think the reviewer could have described a few elements of the treatment in more detail to make the process a little more understandable. For example, she could have explained that “T” and “B” cells are both types of white blood cells, the cells that make up the human immune system. The reviewer could have improved her review by including a few of the comments from various cancer experts who have commented on the new treatment. This could have added some more significance and validation to the discovery.
One interesting thing that I learnt from this review was how one disease is being utilized to treat another. It shows the intricacies and advancements of science.
I read Malika’s review of the article “In Girl’s Last Hope, Altered Immune Cells Beat Leukemia.” I think she did a great job summarizing the main points of the article. She made the process that the researchers used to cure the cancer easy to understand. She explained that the researchers altered the T-cells to destroy the B-cells. I also think that Malika did a great job explaining the consequences of the treatment. She mentioned that this procedure could be very helpful for patients because it is cheaper and less painful than the typical treatment, a bone marrow transplant. But she also mentioned that it might not be effective for all people since in the study the procedure had no effects on two of the ten participants. A third and final aspect of Malika’s review that was well done was her explanation of why the researchers used a disabled form of H.I.V.. She explained that the disabled H.I.V. is very good at carrying genetic material into T-cells.
ReplyDeleteMalika could have enhanced her review in multiple ways. Malika did not mention the University of Pennsylvania’s role in this process. For example, the treatment was developed at the University of Pennsylvania. Also, similar treatment processes have been tried by other facilities including the National Cancer Institute. Also while Malika did a great job explaining the details of the process she did not explain what a lot of the terms meant. For example, T-cells and B-cells are forms of blood cells.
After reading this article I learned a lot about the advancements being made to treat Leukemia. I did not know that disabled H.I.V. Cells could be useful to help treat this deadly disease. I think that the article was very informative and definitely helped the reader understand the complicated process.
In the review produced by Malika, she did a very nice job of simplifying the article, in order to emphasize the most important points. Malika focused on the main ideas of the article, as she described the disease, leukemia, accompanied by the story of Emma Whitehead, the 7 year old girl who underwent this new treatment, and she discussed significant facts pertaining to the treatment itself. Within Malika’s review she also includes direct facts from the article itself, which help to sort of reassure the reader of the evidences, and add a sense of security to the information given in the review with regards to the article. For example, Malika includes this fact from the article, “The treatment has been tested on ten other people: three adults have been “cured,” four adults have improved, one child improved then relapsed, and in another two the treatment didn’t work at all.” Such a fact as this allows the reader to understand and feel confident in the facts Malika describes in her review, as they correctly mimic the facts of the article. Another aspect of her review I find particularly well presented, is how Malika intertwined within her factual references, personal opinion. Malika’s review allows the reader to not only learn about the new treatment being described, with important facts, but also her review enables the reader to understand Malika’s point of view with regards to this scientific topic. For example, within her review Malika mentions a bit of apprehension she may have for this new treatment as she states, “The altered T-cells do destroy healthy B-cells as well as cancerous ones, leaving patients vulnerable to certain types of infections, so it may not be the best treatment that can be developed.”
ReplyDeleteAlthough Malika does a very nice job with her review of this article, an aspect of the review that may have made it even better, would be if Malika had included a bit more information pertaining to the treatment Emma experienced, and what specifically happened to her; which, ultimately allowed the doctors to build upon this new development for treatment. For example, perhaps if Malika had included such description the reader could comprehend how Emma more specifically links to the article, and how what happened to her directly effects the new treatment. For instance, if Malika described how the steroids didn’t help Emma to ease the reaction of her initial treatment therefore, “Her temperature hit 105. She wound up on a ventilator, unconscious and swollen almost beyond recognition, surrounded by friends and family who had come to say goodbye. But at the 11th hour, a battery of blood tests gave the researchers a clue as to what might help save Emma: her level of one of the cytokines, interleukin-6 or IL-6, had shot up a thousand fold,” Malika could have allowed the reader to understand a little more regarding Emma’s story and influence because, as a result, of Emma’s personal reaction Dr. June inferred a drug that could help her, resulting in an “amazing” response, which influences the upcoming developments in the new treatment. Another aspect of her review Malika could have made even better, is if she included information pertaining to the specific places who have expressed their excitement for this upcoming treatment. For example as stated in the article, “similar approaches are also being tried at other centers, including the National Cancer Institute and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.” Perhaps if Malika had included, this information the reader could see how the experimental treatment is effecting other centers and institutes, instead of solely effecting those in Philadelphia.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I found this article to be very interesting, as well as inspirational. The fact that doctors and researchers are coming up with new treatments for cancer, and how they have found one that has actually worked on such and individual as Emma Whitehead, is very inspiring. Although, after various trial and error, doctors may conclude this new treatment to be invalid, the fact that such research and attempt is going on is reassuring, as there is a multitude of people trying to save lives, and there is the hope that one day, an end to such an incredibly awful disease as cancer will come.
The article, In Girl’s Last Hope- Altered Immune Cells Beat Leukemia, Malika was able to discuss the importance of this research in the hopes to cure people who have Leukemia. The review was very interesting in that it discussed a possible cure for Leukemia. The treatment for Leukemia was found by Dr. Carl June at the University of Pennsylvania. This possible treatment was tested on ten other people, most receiving different results, some being completely cured, while others had no change to their health. Novartis, a drug company, is giving the team $20 million to build a research center to bring the treatment to the market. The treatment is done by doctors who remove millions of the patient’s T-cells and insert new genes that enable the T-cells to kill cancer cells. The technique gives a disabled form of H.I.V. because it is very good at carrying genetic material into T-cells. The new genes program the T-cells to attack B-cells, a normal part of the immune system that turn malignant in leukemia. The altered T-cells are then re-inserted back into the patient’s veins, and if the treatment works they will multiply and start destroying the cancer. Doctors still do not know why this treatment is effective for some patients while it has no impact for others. Hopefully, with the new research that is being conducted, a treatment can be developed and introduced to the market.
ReplyDeleteThis article discusses an interesting treatment for Leukemia that that possibly change the lives of many people in society. With a treatment, many people can fight this terrible condition. Many young children are affected by Leukemia and it would be an advantage to have a treatment that parents can look forward to that can cure their child from health problems.
The article was very well presented in a way that can be understood by readers. I would have liked to understand more about the research aspect of this possible treatment. For example, learning more about the process by which Dr. June came to find this treatment. Also, I would have liked what are some of the steps taken in order to determine if someone is a possible candidate. For instance, does the person need to have an extensive form of a certain type of Leukemia? However, I found the article to be very interesting and well written.
--Nastaran Soroori 1/2/13
Malika's review of, In Girl's Last Hope-Altered Immune Cells Beat Leukemia, was very good as she was able to pick out and summarize the most important points made within the article. Malika does a good job in describing how the article does propose a possible cure, however that is has only been tested on ten people, many of which experienced different results. Some were fully cured, some were benefitted, and some were not affected at all. This detail is important because this is a relatively low number for research and with these results this is not a definite cure. Malika also did a great job of describing the use of the AIDS virus to attack and kill cancer cells, which is what this treatment does. Lastly, Malika added her personal opinions in her review allowing us to see how she perceived the article, however did not let it taint her factually covering the article.
ReplyDeleteThis summary was done well, however there are two things in which Malika could've improved upon. One way is she could've referenced "T" and "B" cells as white blood cells to give us a deeper understanding to that part of the article. Also, she could've input how this treatment was founded at U-Penn and how this has been tried at other cancer facilities and labs as well.
The most interesting part of the article in my opinion is that within the 10 patients that were treated with this, many had different reactions and it was still written about. Malika included in her summary the statistic, “The treatment has been tested on ten other people: three adults have been “cured,” four adults have improved, one child improved then relapsed, and in another two the treatment didn’t work at all.” The fact that there were several different responses intrigued me to see how/why their reactions differed and how close we are to finding a universal cure for leukemia.
Malika’s review was very good because it was comprehensive and detailed. It was impressive how concisely she was able to summarize such a vastly complex issue. For instance, she pinpointed very important factors that people oftentimes forget to include, such as the cost. I was able to clearly understand that this treatment requires doctors removing millions of the patient’s T-cells and insert new genes to kill cancer cells; this process also employs a disabled form of H.I.V. that is good at carrying genetic material into T-cells. Since I know that Malika’s also involved in cancer research, I found it nice that she chose to review on something that she is personally engaged in.
ReplyDeleteA question that remained unanswered by the end of this review was potential side-effects that the procedure may have, especially given that it uses a disabled form of H.I.V. I understand that it weakens the immune system, but I was specifically curious to know if this would potentially lead to the patients to develop AIDS.
I was impressed with this new and what seems to me very original method of curing leukemia for patients in a devastated situation. Though the results show that the method is not a hundred percent effective, I think we can be hopeful that we will discover a cancer cure sometime soon.
Denise Grady’s article, “In Girl’s Last Hope, Altered Immune Cells Beat Leukemia,” was extremely interesting and hopeful. Malika, also, did a very good job reviewing this exciting article. Her first paragraph was helpful, for it was a very informative summary of the new research being done that uses a form disabled HIV virus to try and cure cancer, by alternating T-cells to kill B-cells, which can often become malignant. Also, I agree with Malika that the author made the article and its scientific “explanation(s) clear and comprehendible.” This was vital to the article, for science articles can be hard to follow, due to the complex research that is being discussed, but since the article was easy to read, the reader became more excited by the new drug. Finally, Malika did a good job explaining all of the benefits to using this system, such as the fact that it is much cheaper and it is a safer process (although this process is also quite risky, for it almost killed Emma, but, then again, this is a newer process, and they are still working out the kinks).
ReplyDeleteThere were a few things that Malika could have done to make this review better. For example, she could have made the review more personal, especially by adding in more quotes, for quotes and specific examples of success stories always make an article more promising, and therefore the reader becomes more interested. Also, it seemed as if the review was just dry facts repeated from the article. The review might have been more interesting had there been a bit more analysis, like there was in the article itself. Without it, the review felt as if it was just repeating everything from the article.
This article was truly encouraging. I hope that this new process is successful at helping many people who are currently battling cancer. The article mentioned that many people weren’t as interested in the process, for it is not a uniform drug, but instead unique for each person, but at this point, it appears that this is how cancer needs to be treated, for everyone has unique cases of the disease. It was also uplifting to hear that a young girl is doing much better, and will hopefully be able to live a long and happy life.